COLUMBUS – Ohio’s unemployment rate more than doubled from 5.8% in March to 16.8% in April as businesses closed and employers idled workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The state’s economy lost 823,700 over the month from a revised 5.5 million in March to 4.7 million in April as the number of unemployed workers ballooned to 957,000, up 623,000 from March, according to data released Friday by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
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The April jobless rate is the highest since the state’s current record keeping system was developed almost 50 years ago.
Bret Crow, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, says the 16.8% is the highest since the current statistical record keeping began in 1976.
The last time the unemployment rate was even near this figure was the 14% recorded in December 1982 and January 1983, Crow said.
The dismal report was no surprise as, the day before, the department had announced that the number of Ohioans filing initial claims for unemployment benefits during the two months since restaurants, stores, schools and other employers were shut down to stop the spread of the coronavirus had topped 1.2 million.
No segment of the economy was immune to the job drain with the hardest-hit sectors being manufacturing and construction, with combined losses of 115,700. The service sector lost over 600,000 jobs, including 263,500 leisure, and hospitality with the shutdown of hotels and most restaurants and widespread cancellation of events and conventions.
The state’s report on the weekly first-time jobless claims indicated that the pace of the job losses has been slowing for the past several weeks and employers began resuming their operations this month under Gov. Mike DeWine’s Responsible Restart Ohio plan, though many have been slow to resume full operations.